Wednesday 29 July 1668

Busy all the morning at the office. So home to dinner, where Mercer, and there comes Mr. Swan, my old acquaintance, and dines with me, and tells me, for a certainty, that Creed is to marry Betty Pickering, and that the thing is concluded, which I wonder at, and am vexed for. So he gone I with my wife and twogirls to the King’s house, and saw “The Mad Couple,” a mean play altogether, and thence to Hyde Parke, where but few coaches, and so to the New Exchange, and thence by water home, with much pleasure, and then to sing in the garden, and so home to bed, my eyes for these four days being my trouble, and my heart thereby mighty sad.

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In this entry, Pepys gets the news that Creed, his principal rival for Sandwich’s favor -- whom he "hates" http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1668/06/22/ -- is to wed Lord Sandwich’s niece -- which he will, say L&M, "in the following October."

Hmmn...Miss Pickering is daughter to the troubled Sir Gilbert, constantly in enough trouble with the Stuarts as to require his wife to even go begging to Sam for help. Sounds like Creed carefully played on the family's desperate need for connections at Court while being able to hint at having "sympathy" with Sir Gilbert's position as a former prominent Puritan himself. No doubt his intimate knowledge of Sandwich's affairs didn't hurt his suit. All that said, perhaps it is a love match...

"So John Creed is marrying a Bess too..." Bess beams.

"Yes...The right one..." Sam, darkly grousing...

***

"Creed!...To marry into our family?!!" Sandwich, red-faced.

"Now, Edward..." Jemina, sighing...

"I'd sooner have had little Pepys...At least he's family."

"Yes, our Sam is a dear...But Edward...This note Creed sent..."

"Where he congratulates me on having him enter our family?!!...More or less..."

"And where he notes he'll do all he can, as a member of the family, naturally, to see that no scandal touches our family..."

"Threatening to screw me on the prize goods and our personal accounts, eh?"

"Looks much like it...In very polite and subtle terms..." Jemina, nodding. "One must give the man credit for his unique talents."